One of the ironic things I've seen lately is the top level internet marketers who keep switching affiliate tracking systems with every launch they make.

In some cases it's because the person they are helping to launch already has some relationship with an existing vendor - e.g. they have an account with 1shoppingcart.com or use their own already installed script.

But in other cases the reason is that the marketer burned his affiliates on the last launch, because they used a package that didn't track properly, resulting in unhappy and untrusting affiliates.

Sometimes these things require you to get burned before you see that there's over 60 tracking options available. 

Anyone selling online should see that when it comes to tracking affiliate commissions you need to be 100% bulletproof, so that you have motivated affiliates making YOU more money.

Don't be half-pregnant - make sure you get a solution and have backup systems in place to reduce the leakage as much as possible.

One promotion that aims to have such a system in place is the Affiliate programme of the new Altitude business coaching programme by Eben Pagan. Their affiliate manager Andrew Way told me that not only are they tracking affiliate ids to every lead, they will also be tracking anyone THOSE leads refer (via their refer-a-friend and get free software offer), and they have a backup custom system in place behind the scenes. On top of that they will be verifying leads manually when they close the sales.

Commissions are $5,092.35 for each affiliate, which is one of the highest I've seen, so of course the tracking needs to be solid. But it's the same principle for higher volume/low ticket products  too - get solid tracking and you maximize your affiliate revenues.

--- (Edited on 7/24/2007 3:27 pm [GMT-0500] by Peter) ---